- published: 18 Nov 2011
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Filipino is the official and national language of the Philippines which are composed of 8 different major languages in the country such as Cebuano or Binisaya, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon, Bikol, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Ilocano, and Maranao. Though Filipino is patterned to Tagalog language in sentence construction but several terms in Filipino language are not available in Tagalog because the Filipino language is a mixture of the 8 majority languages of the county to form a national Language “Filipino Language”.
Filipino is a prestige register which is based in Tagalog language in sentence construction and is designated as the national language of the Philippines and as an official language (the other being English). Tagalog is a first language of about one-third of the Philippine population; it is centered around Manila but is spoken in varying degrees nationwide.
There was no common language in the Philippine archipelago when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The three major linguae francae were Tagalog, Ilocano, and Visayan. As the Philippine languages are all closely related and therefore easy for Filipinos to learn, most speakers of smaller languages spoke in two or more such regional languages.